


What We Leave Behind

by MalisonQuill, RexBrickowski



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Gen, Rex is being a little shit again, and Metalbeard is in there for a second too, i made myself cry while writing this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 04:22:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20269948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalisonQuill/pseuds/MalisonQuill, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RexBrickowski/pseuds/RexBrickowski
Summary: Before going back in time to put his master plan into action, Rex decides to pay a visit to the monument dedicated to his past self.What he ends up finding there is much more than he bargained for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was bored and wanted to write, so I used a random prompt generator… The one I got was "long lost family," and whoo, my brain started going a mile a minute. 
> 
> MalisonQuill and I have been working on developing this into a full AU now!! ~

Rex scowled up at the gleaming bronze statue in distaste.  


  


Bronze? They'd gone with bronze??

  


It deserved, at the very least, gold outer pieces. He could begrudgingly understand if they had made the core out of lesser valued pieces, saving the expensive ones for the outside... but as it was, looking up at the unattractive, muddy-looking copper bricks that made up Emmet Brickowski's Memorial Statue sent a fresh wave of anger crashing through him.

  


He flexed his hands subconsciously, mind preoccupied with fragments of thought. He should destroy it.

Yeah... A single punch should do it. He probably didn't even need to channel that much of his Master Breaker ability. Looked like shoddy craftsmanship.

Who had designed this crap? Benny? Batman? He was probably the one who commissioned it, at least. This junk had probably only cost him pocket change, too. Or maybe his old construction worker "buddies" had designed it. Had they even remembered his name when they were adding the plaque? Or did they have to ask? Now that he was looking closer at it, yeah, it looks like they hadn't even gotten his face right. A "forgettable face."

He should break it, and leave a note. "Build it with gold next time. - Emmet"

Yeah. That would shake them up real good. He didn't think his handwriting had changed that much, it would certainly get the message across, and probably cause a panic too. He felt a bitter sort of pleasure at the thought of the townspeople finding the note, assuming that an angry Emmet had come from the afterlife to disapprove of their half-assed monument to his memory, and falling to figurative pieces. 

  


Mind made up, Rex stood a little straighter, rolling his shoulders. He pulled one arm back, fist clenched tightly, feeling his fury at this injustice coursing through his veins like fire, and let it focus in his arm, in the tensed muscles and taut tendons. He closed his eyes and pictured the statue crumbling to worthless pieces under his fist, and a slightly manic grin stretched across his face.

He had barely started to shift his weight forward again when he heard a voice behind him, causing him to freeze. 

  


Something told him that whoever it was wouldn't be able to appreciate the poetic justice of him destroying the shitty statue of his past self. Far from it. He'd probably be seen as some kind of terrorist.

Rex wasn't ready to deal with that currently.

  


Cursing mentally, he silently slipped around the statue, before diving into a patch of bushes that helped make up the backdrop to the underwhelming statue.

  


"--to go?" Rex barely caught the end of a sentence as he settled in the brush. 

  


"I won't be long. You don't have to come with me."

  


Something inside of Rex clenched tightly at that voice. 

  


Of course. 

Of course it had to be her.

Who else would actually want to come visit this pile of junk? 

  


Rex peered through the branches as Lucy slowly walked through the gateway and approached the statue, walking so close to it he couldn't see her from his vantage point. He found himself shifting in the brush, trying to keep her in his line of sight, before stopping.

  


This wasn't why he was here.

  


He settled back in his crouched position, absent-mindedly rubbing a twinge in his neck. He just had to wait until she left again, no biggie.

  


… 

  


...How long was she going to keep standing there?

  


After a few moments spent crouched in silence, his curiosity got the best of him. Without really thinking about what he was doing, he found himself slowly creeping to the side, his focus on making sure not to break any branches, and on keeping a layer of leaves between the open and himself.

  


He kept shifting to the side this way until she was back in view, and he settled again into a rather uncomfortable crouch. These bushes were grown to be a decorative background, not to hide a fully grown man. Even so, his discomfort was momentarily forgotten as he looked up at Lucy. 

  


She was wearing a plain black sweatshirt, an odd look for her without her usual added colorful flair. Her hair seemed a faded grey-blue, clearly the results of too many washes after a hair dye job. What was the strangest to Rex, however, was the fact that she was kneeling at the foot of the statue, head lowered. 

Was she praying? Was Lucy even religious?? It seemed highly improbable to him that she was, she wasn't--

  


He cut himself off and scoffed silently. 

He didn't know her, clearly. This had already been established, when she had abandoned him, given up on him for dead despite everything they had gone through together, everything he thought they had meant to each other. 

  


Maybe he could still destroy that damned statue. After all, it would be far more impactful to do it right in front of her face, while she was clearly mourning a death. 

Rex started to rise from the bush--

  


"I got flowers!!" 

  


Once again, an unexpected voice caused Rex to freeze mid-movement.

  


That was a little girl's voice.

  


Lucy straightened, turning with a faint smile to face the little figure running towards her. "Let's see them, then."

  


The girl was small, no more than three or four. Her red hair was pulled back in twin pigtails, and her face and polka-dot dress were smeared with dirt. She proudly held out a clump of flowers in her muddy fist, which Lucy took from her with a muffled laugh.

  


"Mr. Pirate told me to give them to you! He said you'd want them!"

  


"Oh, my, they're beautiful."

  


"Yeah!!" 

  


Lucy turned and placed the sad bundle of flowers at the foot of the statue, the little girl looking on in amusement. 

  


Rex couldn't look away. He was gripped with a mortal terror that both urged him to flee and kept him rooted to the spot, stuck in his partially risen position. His body had locked up completely with his legs partially extended, and despite his discomfort, he couldn't bend them again.

  


He silently prayed to an unknown entity that they wouldn't look, that they wouldn't see him, that they would  _ go away.  _

  


The girl frowned slightly. "Why do you give flowers to a statue?"

  


Lucy thought for a moment, eyes locked on the statue as to not meet the child's curious gaze. "It's… to honor his memory. So he knows no one's forgotten him."

  


Her words seemed to break the spell Rex was under, and he lowered himself, trembling with effort, to the ground. 

  


He wanted to scream. To tear apart the branches poking his skin. To leap from hiding and demolish that fucking statue. To grind those stupid flowers under his heel. 

  


_ In memory? He's not forgotten???  _

  


The universe had to be playing some kind of cruel joke on him.

  


Every word was another twist in the knife in his side, reopening wounds with fresh pain, wounds that he had thought had scarred over completely.

  


He was--

  


"But Momma…"

  


The word shot through Rex like a javelin, tearing up everything inside of him. His breath caught in his throat, and he barely managed to smother a strangled cry. 

  


He had known. The moment he had seen the child's face he had known. But  _ fuck, did it hurt. _

  


" _ Momma _ ." The girl insisted in a distressed tone, tugging on Lucy's sleeve and jolting her from whatever reverie she had been lost in. Lucy looked down at her with surprise, as if she had forgotten she was there.

  


"Yes?" 

  


"But… But I think I forgot him…"

  


Lucy's face twisted with pain, but she quickly hid the expression before leaning down to pick the girl up. "Oh no, sweetheart, you never… You didn't have the chance to meet him. It was a very, very long time ago."

  


"Oh." The girl stared at the statue with intense concentration, trying to make up her mind about something. Finally, she seemed to give up, and turned to Lucy instead. "Would he have liked me?"

  


Rex didn't notice the tears cascading down his cheeks, and even if he had he couldn't have brought himself to wipe them away. He watched, frozen in silent agony, waiting for Lucy's response with as much anticipation as the girl in her arms. 

  


Lucy held her daughter closer to her, burying her face in the child's shoulder. "Don't be silly… Of course. Of course he would… Your father would have loved you."

  


"Lucy?" 

  


Metalbeard was peering through the gateway at the pair, looking sheepish at his interruption. "The bus be arrivin' soon. Best to not miss yer ride home, aye?"

  


Lucy set the girl down again, taking her hand. "You're right. Thanks Metalbeard, I lost track of time…" 

  


"Completely understandable, lass," the pirate said gently, straightening and standing back. 

  


Lucy walked back the way she had come, holding her daughter's hand a little tighter than necessary, causing the child to giggle and try to squeeze back. 

  


Metalbeard kept talking as they turned away, trying to diffuse the heavy silence. "Well, it was mighty kind of ye to let Benny borrow ye car while he be visitin', but I still don't know why ye refused me offer of a ride!" 

  


Lucy laughed, clearly at some joke they shared, and the bright sound carried back to the grotto on the wind, fading to silence as the trio walked away.

  


The moment the sounds of their voices faded completely, Rex practically fell from his hiding place, crumpling in a heap in front of the bushes.

  


He didn't bother rising, and lay there for a few moments that stretched into eternity, body wracking with silent, empty sobs.

  


He wasn't sure how long it was before he regained control of himself, but gradually, his breathing leveled out, and he found he had enough strength in his legs to stand.

  


He planted one hand on the statue, palm flat, to anchor himself as he slowly rose to his feet. 

  


He couldn't think. His ears were ringing, filled with echoes of Lucy's laughter, his mind clouded with a thick mist of grief.

  


He remained leaning against the statue for only a few seconds before his body began moving of its own accord. 

  


He didn't think. He didn't need to. 

  


He ran.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written as a follow-up by the lovely MalisonQuill!!  
Go give her lots of love if you haven't already, she's wonderful ♡

Lucy and her daughter were about to step on the bus, as Metalbeard stood to the side on the pavement ready to wave them goodbye. When all of a sudden someone shouting at them caught their attention and instantly made them freeze.

_"WAIT!!!"_

They all turned to look at the strange gruff voice.

Rex ran up to them, stopping a few meters away, leaving a what felt simultaneously like an endless expanse and a hair's breadth of space between them. His face was red as fresh tears silently ran down it. Lucy and Metalbeard looked at this stranger to them utterly confused, but the little girl just looked at him with a curious naïve smile.

"Don't-" He paused, gasping for breath after his exhausting quick sprint.

He looked up at Lucy, staring right into her eyes. He looked at her with a deep, aching longing, his fractured heart drowning in a sea of conflicting emotions. She stared back at him, an unsure inkling of familiarity forming in the back of her mind. But she stayed skeptical, unwilling to believe that something so impossible could ever be true.

He'd ran here without thinking. He realised now that maybe that had been a bad idea, but he was here now, she was looking at him.

And he realised he couldn't possibly tear himself away now.

Rex shook his head in dismay, before he spoke up, quietly, softly and utterly broken.

_"Don't go… Please…"_

Lucy's hand instantly dropped as she let her grip on her daughter's go.

Silently she walked forward a few paces.

She stared at him with a frozen, haunted look on her face, as he mirrored her expression in silence.

Neither of them could believe what was happening.

Rex didn't know what to do. He'd been mad for so long, become so twisted by anger, and abandonment, and so, so much regret. Especially now, more than ever, did his regrets smother his heart with grief. But with Lucy and… her standing here meer meters before him, he couldn't be angry at them. He just felt so hollow, so torn up inside by a raging war of feelings, that all he could do was stare back at her in deafening silence.

Lucy analysed his face intently. It was too rugged, too gaunt, and too angular to belong to the person she remembered. His hair was too long, too wild and too dark. He held himself too tensely, radiating with too much anger and sorrow to be the cheerful man she once knew.

But that _voice._

That soft, quiet voice, just like the one that had echoed in her dreams for so long…

That was a voice she could never, _ever_ forget…

_"Emmet…?"_ She breathlessly whispered.

The name stung his heart like searing acid, but he couldn't deny it had once belonged to him, that it was the name she knew him by. He nodded slowly, a sob jerking his whole body with overwhelming grief.

She stayed utterly still. Unable to think, or speak, or move or anything.

But from behind them, they heard Metalbeard shout out.

"Emma, wait!"

Rex's attention was snapped away from Lucy in an instant. His gaze fixed on the small girl running up to him. She stood right in front of him, looking up at him in quizzical wonder, scrutinising his face and everything about him.

_"Emma…?"_ He shockingly whispered, barely above silence.

He looked at her. He really looked at her, being able to analyse her for the first time fully knowing who she was.

He'd seen how much of Lucy there was in her from the offset of course, but now he could see echoes of who he used to be in her too. Her hair was red, as if his old light brown had combined with Lucy's natural vibrant colours to create a perfect fusion of the both of them. Her face was round, and looked soft and squishy, just like his had been for so long. She looked up at him with such sweet and naïve innocence that reminded him exactly of the old version of himself that he'd kept buried inside him for so long.

And her name…

She'd been named _for him._

And that was all it took.

That was all he needed to finally break.

He fell to his knees silently, not taking his eyes off of her for a second. Tears fell down his face even faster than before, and he didn't think they'd ever stop. She frowned at him, confused and worried.

"Why are you crying mister?" She asked

He choked a sob. His crying got louder, he shook violently with sobs as they racked his body. He buried the heels of his palms into his eyes as regret overwhelmed him.

Emma was shocked. She'd rarely seen grown ups cry before, but never, ever had she seen one do so this badly.

"No! Don't be sad!" She exclaimed.

Before Rex even knew what was happening, he felt something hit his front. He looked down, and saw she'd wrapped her two tiny arms as far as she could around his waist, to give him the tightest hug she could muster. She buried her head into his chest, trying her hardest to make him feel better. She didn't know who he was or why he was sad, but she thought it was right to do what her Mommy did for her whenever she got upset. Her Mommy always said she should try to be nice to strangers and help them, because that's what Daddy would have done.

Rex quietened a little. He glanced up at Lucy, who looked at the two of them with silent tears of her own flowing down her face.

Then he turned his attention back to the tiny girl clinging to his waist.

Extremely hesitantly, with quivering arms that shook with uncertainty, returned her hug. His arms rested over her back with only the ghost of a touch. He wanted to be as gentle as possible. He'd gotten so used to master breaking and fighting over the years, that he barely knew how to handle something so small, so delicate, so _precious_ as the small child before him.

She looked up at him with a beaming, Emmet-like smile, as she felt happy that he'd slowed his crying and hugged her back.

He chuckled at her. Utterly amazed at her and the way she'd instantly somehow been able to squeeze through a tiny crack in his hardened heart, just enough to make him feel a fleeting glimmer of happiness.

He gave her a wobbly, uncertain smile, and spoke to her in a voice that was just as soft, and sweet as her, that made him sound exactly like his old forgotten self.

_"Hey there kiddo…"_


End file.
